Camila Ruilova dedicates her time working to help newly arrived migrants, but she doesn't actually have a job. This is volunteer work — to help others find employment.

"I thought I was going to have some sort of resentment that like all these people are coming here and they're already getting work authorization, they are starting to work, they are getting things that I need, like that one document that I need to work, but it was not like that at all," Ruilova, a volunteer at the Jackson Heights Immigration Center, said.

What You Need To Know

  • Camila Ruilova dedicates her time working to help newly arrived migrants, but she doesn't actually have a job

  • Ruilova is unable to obtain work authorization. More than two decades ago, she and her mother traveled from Ecuador and crossed the U.S. border without permission

  • Her mother has two other girls, as well, ages 13 and 15. They are American citizens because they were born here, and while they can't be deported, if her family is forced out, they would have little choice: stay alone or leave with them

  • Ruilova fears for the worst, even as her future in this country is unclear

Ruilova is unable to obtain work authorization. More than two decades ago, she and her mother traveled from Ecuador and crossed the U.S. border without permission. They joined her father and grandparents, who were already in Queens. They came for a better life, but at 23 years old, she's unemployed.

"It hurt the most immediately after I graduated, because all my friends were like, 'Oh, I got my job here, like I was doing [an] internship here, and they hired me,' and I was like, well, why wasn't I hired? Like, I worked hard," she said.

Ruilova says her parents never applied for asylum, and she missed the window to apply for DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects some people from deportation who came here illegally as children. Her application was denied.

"I remember I cried, I had cried so many times, but not in front of them," Johana Bustamante, her mother, said. "Like I said, I always told her to be - to focus in the good things, to focus that she has to do good, that she is a good person and everything is going to be fine."

Bustamante has two other girls, as well, ages 13 and 15. They are American citizens because they were born here, and while they can't be deported, if her family is forced out, they would have little choice: stay alone or leave with them. But they say they're not giving up.

"I stay here with them, I fight for them and I'm teaching them to be strong women," Bustamante said.

Nuala O'Doherty, a lawyer, founded the Jackson Heights Immigration Center, a nonprofit providing guidance to migrants seeking asylum. After the election, the goals have changed - Trump has vowed to "close the border" and deport people in "mass."

Ruilova fears for the worst, even as her future in this country is unclear.

"I would fight like hell to stay here, because I think we deserve to be here. I do," she said.